Fast-Track Cities London Leadership Group Launches ‘Getting to Zero’ Collaborative Housing and Immigration Grant

Fast-Track Cities London Leadership Group Launches ‘Getting to Zero’ Collaborative Housing and Immigration Grant

Fast-Track Cities London Leadership Group is offering a grant of £90,000 to a provider, or partnership of providers, to deliver specialist housing and immigration services for people living with HIV. The grant aims to expand support across London, ensuring equal access for all Londoners, in line with the recommendations of the Evolving HIV Care report.

This initiative will further the ‘Getting to Zero’ goals by:

• Improving the quality of life and well-being of people living with HIV.
• Supporting the retention of people diagnosed with HIV in care and treatment, and re-engaging those who are no longer accessing services.

Partnership bids are encouraged, particularly where HIV sector organisations collaborate with housing and immigration experts, or where they can demonstrate increased capacity through partnerships.

Background
Currently, housing advice for people living with HIV is available in north east and south east London, with specialist immigration advice offered in north east London. This grant seeks to extend these services across all of London, particularly in areas lacking targeted support. The programme aims to start in January 2025 (subject to procurement) and will run until May 2026.

The successful organisation or partnership of organisations will join the Fast-Track Cities London quality improvement collaborative called the ‘Getting to Zero collaborative’ and work with other voluntary sector organisations to improve quality of life and engagement in care for people living with HIV.

To be considered, bidders must meet the following criteria:

• Initiative must be led by the third sector and work in partnership with the ‘Getting to Zero’ collaborative partners.
• Demonstrate how their proposal will deliver on the aims set out above.
• Have expert skills and experience, including accreditation where required, of delivering housing and immigration services. Must have current capacity and capability to deliver housing and immigration services and be able to expand on this at pace, to improve the lives of people living with HIV.
• Knowledge of HIV is essential, incorporating strong understanding of prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care, quality of life, stigma and discrimination, as well as the wider determinants and inequalities related to HIV and sexual health through the life-course. This could be achieved by working in partnership with a HIV organisation.
• Knowledge of the intersectional inequalities faced by migrants, and specific migrant populations, particularly those in vulnerable circumstances.
• Provide a service that welcomes all migrants regardless of immigration status.
• Provide a service that is open to anyone living with HIV living in London. Prioritisation must be given to people experiencing potential challenges with adhering to treatment, for example, people living with HIV who are destitute, experiencing homelessness or on a low income.
• Demonstrate how they will build upon established referral pathways/signposting to other relevant services where needed, for example, around substance misuse, sex worker organisations, or specific organisations who can support groups who are overrepresented among migrant populations (for example Roma ethnicity).
• Be willing to employ a quality improvement and evaluation methodology into the operational running of the initiative, including sharing data with the collaborative and the evaluation partner. Ability to collect and analyse data to gain insight, inform decisions and improvements, and build data-led reports.
• Experience of delivering large programmes of work with maximum impact. Demonstrate through a flexible project plan how their initiative will tackle health inequalities, reach underserved communities and support access for those people most at risk given the large geographical area.
• Ability to work collaboratively with multiple stakeholders from diverse communities, including NHS partners.
• Political sensitivity and ability to maintain neutral, evidence-based approach to project.

Read the full specification for housing and immigration work here.

What is the procurement process?

The grant will be commissioned as a grant agreement administered by the Royal Free NHS Foundation Trust on behalf of Transformation Partners in Health and Care (TPHC). This allows for flexibility to make adjustments to the project post-bid in line with the quality improvement approach of the Getting to Zero’ collaborative.

How will the bids be assessed?

An independent panel from the Fast-Track Cities London Leadership Group will assess the bids, plus two members of the Fast-Track Cities London programme team. The panel will include neutral members without conflicts of interest.

How to apply?

Please complete the application form here.

The timeline for the grant application is:

More information on the ‘Getting to Zero’ collaborative can be found at: https://fasttrackcities.london/our-work/getting-to-zero/.

If you have any questions about the grant or application process, please email rf-tr.londonftci@nhs.net.